Spoiler Alert!

The first year of Booster Gold's adventures built to a very cinematic page 16 in Booster Gold #12:

The presumed victim is really the villain! Booster Gold is betrayed by his most loyal friend! Close-ups! Time dilation! Silence! Death?

It sure makes you want to turn to the next page and keep reading, doesn't it?

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If anyone ever asks you what superhero comics were like in the 1990s, just show them this panel:

Shoulder pads, pouches, and armored cowls, oh my!

It probably won't surprise you to learn that panel is from Bloodbath #1, released on this date in 1993.

"Bloodlines" was the DC's annual crossover event series for 1993, and as you can see, Booster was trapped in his ungainly (and unsightly) post-Doomsday football armor at the time, which partially explains why he played such a small role in the proceedings.

Don't worry, Booster. There will be better (and better looking) days ahead.

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A primary motivation for my maintenance of this blog promoting DC Comics' Booster Gold is to build a catalog of Booster references outside the world of comic books. So, of course, when I saw yesterday's CBR.com article, "Going For Gold: Booster Gold's Long History Of TV Appearances," I knew I'd have to mention it here.

The article briefly covers the television shows that have included significant Booster Gold appearances, from Justice League Unlimited (2004) to Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2009) to Teen Titans Go!, which gave Booster his first speaking part just this year. It also mentions Booster's two live-action appearances, in the final season Smallville episode "Booster" (2011) and the final season Legends of Tomorrow episode "Knocked Down, Knocked Up" (2022), which had a very, very brief follow-up in The Flash episode "Impulsive Excessive Disorder."

To its credit, the article contains no inaccuracies. However, I expected more, especially considering that there really aren't that many televised Booster Gold appearances. Boosterrific.com maintains a whole page tracking them. I mean, while the article spends a whole paragraph on an obscure cameo appearance in from the 2006 Legion of Super-Heroes, it doesn't mention other cameos in Cartoon Networks' MAD or DC Super Hero Girls. Oh, well, we can't have everything.

If we wanted everything, we'd have to mention things like Booster's 52 cover cameo in MTV's long-forgotten The Hard Times of RJ Berger or Booster's participation the 2012 Robot Chicken DC Comics Special. By the way, Booster almost had a speaking part in that one, a sketch in which he badly defends *not* going back in time and killing Hitler. The sketch was cut for being "too talky," but you can currently see it on Youtube (starting at 5:34).

Anyway, nitpicks aside, I offer congratulations to article writer Alex Russell for spreading the gospel of Booster Gold to those who may not be inclined to read comic books. Russell is a real Booster booster whose CBR bio says he's "still waiting on a Booster Gold movie." You and me both, buddy.

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If it wasn't just the top half of a page, the sequence on page 21 where Booster Gold defeats Shockwave with a garden hose (and the sound effects "splooosh" and "crump") would be my favorite page in Booster Gold #11.

But my favorite full page is the inspired sequence on page 7 that looks like it could just as easily have come from the Marvel Age of Comics, complete with a Reed Richards-like mad scientist and Captain America's mighty shield!

The panel with Kirby dots actually has the sound effect "Crackle." Pure. Genius.

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As all Booster boosters of a certain age know, when Michael Jon "Booster" Carter first came to the 20th century back in 1985, he started a company he called Goldstar, Inc. in honor of his originally intended alter ego (which he fumbled naming in front of the United States president).

The name "Goldstar" was used a lot in the first year of Booster's adventures, eventually becoming the name of Booster's sidekick. And then, after a trip back to the future, Booster renamed his company "Booster Gold Incorporated" with very little explanation why.

Which is not to say that there wasn't a reason.

The answer lies in Russ Burlingame's exclusive interview with Dan Jurgens in a book I'm sure I haven't mentioned around here yet, The Gold Exchange: The Boosterrific Deluxe Edition:

Burlingame: It's funny. I was talking to someone younger than me, recounting the story of how Booster was originally Goldstar. And I said that I always wondered whether that was because of Goldstar, the electronics manufacturer, and whether you had really made that change, rather than it just being a throwaway gag. But that person was younger than me, so they had no idea what the company was that I was even talking about.

Jurgens: Yes. Yeah, it was, by the way. That's exactly what it was: we were into it, I had done Goldstar, and Booster's sister as well, but ultimately, they said "We've got to work away from this," and it was because there was a company out there called Goldstar, which none of us were aware of when I first started using that name. So I was like, "Okay, we've got to roll with that one too."

So yes, that is 100% true.

To be clear, United States trademark law protects a "word, phrase, or design" that distinguishes a company's goods and services from its competitors' similar goods. Therefore, while it was in Booster's best interest to rename his licensing company to avoid confusion with pre-existing international electronics company GoldStar (which you can tell your kids became part of what is now known as LG Corporation), there's no reason DC can't keep using "Goldstar" as a character name.

And now you know... the rest of the story.

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